We all know that blokes hate asking for directions. Sat nav was hailed as the answer to this age old problem and hopefully men will never get lost again! Unfortunately the SAT nav has a darker side as people start depending on it too much.

Aside from the obvious problem of a driver fiddling with his sat nav and crashing the car it seems that many of us will blindly follow the instructions given. It's interesting that a search for sat nav accidents in Goole returns over 300,000 results (admittedly not all individual accident reports but still alarming none the less.

In Germany a 53 year old followed a turn right instruction without even looking where he was going. He entered a building site, drove up a staircase and wrote off a portaloo!
Another driver saw signs on the motorway saying that the motorway was closed due to road works. The sat Nav insisted - continue onto the motorway and he came to an embarrasing halt on a pile of sand!

A £96,000 merc was writted off after a woman followed its instruction up a country lane clearly marked unsuitable for motor vehicles and attempted to cross a Ford which had overflowed and ended up being swept down stream. The electrics cut out causing the windows to open and the terrified driver was struggling to get out when a local swam across and rendered assistance. A local garage confirmed that there was water in the engine and the car was deemed a total loss!

Another driver turned right at a railroad crossing onto the tracks and was hit by a train! Yet another motorist managed to turn right into a supermarket and crashed through the doors into the tinned fruit isle! The stories are endless!

Then I was in Cornwall, it had been a long arduous hour drive and we were pretty desparate to find our accommodation.... eventually we arrived at St Ives in Cornwall and it sent us up a steep cobbled high street full of people on a Saturday afternoon - only about a car wide labelled 'access only' for motor vehicles.

So people were giving us black looks and prams were being pushed out of our way. It was one of the most embarrasing experiences of my life. Clutch was burning badly and the thing was getting harder to control then it said turn right up a little road that was about 1.4m wide!!!! So we had to continue up the high street to the end!!!!

I wouldn't mind but it was a wrong turn completely - the map didn't line up with the street. I guess Cornwall lies on a moving techtonic plate!! In my defense the SAT nav was completely wrong and had miss named the streets! Still I do feel pretty daft - don't tell anyone!